Do Ghostly Patrons Spook Church St.?

Shopkeepers claim they've had visits from the spirit world. Things fly off shelves, figures appear in mirrors and bathroom sinks turn on inexplicably.

I took my own ghost-busting trip this week looking for signs of haunts. I didn't see anything more otherworldly than a lot of dust and a construction worker in a two-sizes-too-small T-shirt.

But business owners told me some interesting tales.

"We've heard children giggling," says Chris Lee, general manager of TooJay's. " . . . And heard that their father still roams the building."

Lee doesn't strike me as a scared-bunny type. But he says strange stuff -- the kid sounds, weird moans and a grill brush with a life of its own -- has been happening since the deli moved in last summer.

Just last weekend, as Lee worked in his office and the restaurant was closed, he heard silverware crash to the floor.

He was too spooked to investigate.

"I'll be honest with you," he says, chuckling. "I just left."

His neighbors at Evertea and the Antique Emporium have seen or heard about it. There was the water glass that danced across a table and crashed, and that odd feeling they get, like someone's there when they're not.

Sightings have occurred on the north side of Church, too. That's where the Amura Japanese restaurant is under construction in what used to be the Lili Marlene's restaurant.

"Lili Marlene" was a popular love song in World War II, warbled in bars all over the world.

And a construction crew pulling up floor in the old building apparently "saw" a bartender and two dancing girls late last year.

"I had gone out to get them coffee and when I came back, they told me they had seen some ghosts in the mirror," Tom Adams, who was overseeing the job, said.

It's not clear if Amura is still moving into the new location, just a block away from its existing downtown site.

Lynn Franklin, the restaurant's lawyer, indicated things were up in the air -- so to speak.

"Right now we can't comment on what is going on," she told me. "We are sort of making a business transition."

I got a slightly different story from the partners in the Church Street development.

"We don't charge extra for ghosts at Church Street Station," a spokeswoman said.

And, specters or not, they expect Amura to honor its lease.

My conclusion: Whether the often-deserted Church Street really has become a ghost town remains to be seen. I'd say a few ghost sightings might actually help in the marketing.

Developer Robert Kling promised a comeback for the strip two years ago. But work on the once-popular complex, home to the former Rosie O'Grady's, has moved slower than the pointer on a Ouija board. Kling and his partners were bickering for months with the city over incentives.

Twenty-five years ago, Church Street's restaurants and bars drew 2 million people a year, making it one of the most popular attractions in Florida.

Bob Snow, the original developer, has probably spent more time on Church than any other living being. He didn't have any experience with ghosts, though he wasn't surprised to hear of recent sightings.

Snow's not pleased with how the new developers have torn up much of his work.

"I'm sure there must be some ghosts somewhere that are unhappy," he said.